Victoria loves having curly hair but wasn’t blessed with it so sometimes we put sponge curlers in her hair. I think they’re totally cute. She didn’t want me to take her picture with them but them I told her she’d love having this picture later in life. It has so much potential. We can show it to potential suitors, her daughter and just look at it and have a good laugh ourselves.
Sam’s Club is the closest real grocery store to our house. Needless to say we go there a LOT. Yesterday we were checking out and I let Aidan have the receipt so that he could give it to the checker at the exit. I almost always let him hold it because they talk with him and draw little smiley faces on it for him. Well yesterday the checker didn’t even glance at Aidan and just drew a line down it and handed it back to me. Aidan was a little disappointed I could tell by the look on his face. For a second I was annoyed and then I realized that even having a store where someone taking a second for my children and being kind to them is a normal thing is exceptional so I shouldn’t be annoyed by this rude man but grateful that we’d been in a situation where we’d come to expect great treatment because that’s what we’d always gotten before. I wonder how often I do this… become annoyed when I ought to be finding reasons to be grateful.
Not that I mind being tied to my 2 year old most times but it’s a little refreshing to finally be able to put him in bed, shut the door and walk away. He’s doing a great job going to bed on his own now! I can go downstairs and not worry about him being scared or hurt or anything else. Now I guess we can have another baby ;0)
Aidan anxiously engaged here at home. If I’m not cleaning up one mess then I’m just about to because he’s in the destructo phase of life. We did some school with him yesterday and he was interested in that but as soon as we were done he was right back to his mess making.
Chullain watching a video on industrialists for school. He likes the freedom of having his own computer and headphones. He seems to have morphed from little kid to pre-teen almost overnight.
Victoria the bug catcher. She is always catching one bug or another in the back yard. She’ll keep them in a jar for a few minutes and then feel bad and let them go again. Aidan is pretty interested in the bugs as well.
My everyday pursuit of grass is making real progress. We had a HUGE wind storm and I just couldn’t stop the seed from blowing away in the center sections but yesterday I reseeded yet again and we’ll pray that the wind isn’t too crazy until it takes root.
There were tons of jet trails in the cloudless blue sky yesterday. It was great!
We went for a walk with friends…
to the park…
and Victoria saw this drainage area with water and weeds and said she thought it looked like a rice field. I think that she’s right. It’s funny that she perceived it like that.
I had to include my phone because it seemed to be buzzing with texts or singing in demand that I answer it almost all day yesterday. Today there is less phone time. That is better.
Check the corsage. He’s been wearing it for days. It’s cute and funny and a little strange.
Wrong feet! And, I’m the one that put them on. Poor kid…
Yeah, we end on a happy note. I have a child that’s old enough to now not only put away dishes but to rinse them as well. Pretty soon he’ll be doing the whole process and I can retire right??
So… Bo is sick, Victoria is sick (she gave it to him I think). Chullain and Aidan were sick last week. I am feeling sick because I put myself on a diet and you don’t want to be around when I am going through sugar withdrawals. On the upside I have to distract myself from my mad cravings for things containing carbohydrates so I am taking care of sick people and painting our front living room. This all makes sense right??
Here are the Aidan antics for the day. He dumped curry powder which I was going to give to a friend all over the front living room. He looked right at me and dumped a glass of milk onto the floor from the kitchen table. He got a marker, brought it to show me and drew with it on the front of my white shirt. He would not even try his dinner of pasta but ate his pears sans fork (yep, you picture right if you’re imagining him with a pear clutched, dripping, in his little fist.) He then devoured his pre-bed snack of cereal (which is generally dry but he insisted have milk on it tonight.) Ohh and he somehow got ice cream even with all that behavior (probably because he wore me out) and when I saw him in the front living room I asked, “did you get wiped off.” He replied, “yep, I wiped myself off.” Sure enough there was a towel right on the table by his dish and he was still sticky but not dripping.
I am totally convinced that I will never have children that are 3 to 3.5 years apart. This would require getting pregnant when I had a two year old and the behavior of my two years olds always works to convince me that I don’t need to repeat this process. Luckily, I am forgetful and love babies and so keep doing it again and again.
On a positive note. Chullain who is over being sick is being totally productive and generally thoughtful and wonderful (except for when it comes to piano practice.)
Our family attended the open house of the Gila Valley Temple in Thatcher, Arizona this past Friday. It was a beautiful drive of just over 3 hours each way. The experience overall was very nice. It’s closer to us than the Albuquerque temple but we’re still not it hat district and there isn’t a Trader Joe’s there so we’ll probably still keep going to Albuquerque most of the time. I should have stopped and taken pictures as the Gila Valley is really beautiful. There was a mountain so high that it was still snow capped in May!
We rode in the car a long time which for our family means movies, books on the ipod, books in hand and chatting. It was a nice to spend a day this way. We stopped for a little while at a playground but I’d forgotten Aidan’s sandals and church shoes don’t make for good traction on climbing equipment so we abandoned that idea. We’ve gone far too long without a road trip so now that we’ve taken one I think that we’ll have to plan another real soon.
It’s growing. There are some holes. I was experimenting and found just the right method and mix so I think that there will quite a few less holes next go round. I’ll fill in these if they don’t fill in themselves once i start cutting the lawn.
These things are growing as well. I love it when the garden starts to come in. I am going to add some things next month from the nursery but we have everything we’re starting from seed in with the exception of the arugula that we’ll add after the first crop of lettuce is harvested.
My cute boy! He’s into everything and has a lot to say and keeps us all laughing and on our toes.
This day in photos I was overly busy. Victoria asked if she could take some pictures and I was thrilled because I didn’t have a lot of time to take them. I figured she’s take pictures of her siblings and other things but what she took pictures of was her sandwich. We now have lots and lots of pictures of her sandwich, lol. It is quite a creative sandwich though so I guess it’s picture worth.
Due to a lot of the deals, recently, the gaming backlog at my house has jumped by about 22 games. Realistically, I won’t be needing to buy any games for a very long time (which is nice, b/c my wife won’t let me anyway). But my (12yo) son was talking about how he’s not sure what game to play next and it occured to me: his childhood gaming experience is going to be so drastically different from mine.
When I was a kid, with my NES and then, eventually, my SNES, I was lucky if I got three games in a year. Normally, I’d get one on my birthday, maybe, and one for Christmas. Luckily, I had friends I could borrow from (something else that doesn’t seem to happen quite as much these days as when I was a kid) and they, in turn, could borrow from me. There wasn’t this need to get the same game that my friend had. It was quite the opposite: if my friend had a game, I didn’t NEED to get it; I could just borrow his.
My kids, however, have (to my knowledge) never borrowed games from their friends. It just seems like it’s something that isn’t done. With the huge number of titles coming out and the speed at which they do, the shiny new object of the month is often replaced before the month is even over. Ninety-nine Nights, for instance… my son played the demo when it came out and loved the gameplay. Talked about it for weeks… kept saying he was going to save up for it. But then something else came about before he got it and he lost sight of it. I just bought the game, used, from GS for about $6. He was glad to get it, but he’s not going to be playing it right away. He’s still working through the LOTR: Conquest I grabbed from EAStore.com for $3.
And that’s my point, I guess… finishing a game and having to CHOOSE which of the MANY games you want to play next was such an alien notion to me as a child, it would have seemed mad to even suggest it could happen. Now, though, my kids have so many games that they don’t even finish most of them. To be honest, finishing a game ONCE is rarer than I can believe.. much less playing through a game, as I did, so many times that you could just about do it blind-folded. There’s a video game backlog, at my house, of about 60 games (give or take, as some are M-rated and just for me). If you added up all the games I ever OWNED before I had children, you’d probably be lucky to get to 15. Now, though, my son and daughter are playing HeartGold and SoulSilver on their DSs… LOTR (son) and Lego Indiana Jones (daughter) on the 360 and Folklore on the PS3 and they’re anxiously awaiting Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii. I mean… I had a Gameboy when I was a kid, but holy hell…
I don’t begrudge them the experience. It’s what they’ve known and I don’t imagine it will change very much in the future. But in an age of SMS text messaging and Email and so many other types of constant and immediate gratification, I wonder what type of gamers my kids will be. Second-generation CAGs, to be sure, but what will be the outcome of a childhood where multi-console backlog is the norm?
I’m back and loving it. I had a great time away and now appreciate being home all the more. Aidan only made a fish face when I arrived and so showed me that he’s just fine with me going away on vacations. Victoria hugged me fiercely and is not quite so ok with me going away. Chullain gave the age appropriate verbal greetings and mandatory small hug because he’s a 12 year old boy who loves the freedom when I’m gone and the order when I return. Bo was very happy to have me back. Being Mr. Mom and supervising a Lord of the Flies type of environment may be fun for a little while but it’s not enjoyable over the long haul. He had to go back to work today and therapy but it’s only a two day week so that’s a consolation.
I was so tired I didn’t care what the house, yard or anything else looked like. I did start right off to try and find the lost snow cat but no luck yet. Today we’ll put up posters and go for a long walk and call her. Poor kitty… I hope she’s alive and well and bothering some other family during this time that she’s been gone from home. Hopefully we’ll find her soon. Off to tackle the day where the to-do list is not firmly established but seems to grow by the minute.
And day that was the precipitate of the entire trip… Today was Sue’s baptism day and it was wonderful. Her friends gave thoughtful talks and everything ran really smoothly. We did other fun things today but that was the highlight. I had my camera out again so here you go…
Ok, girls so this is the olive bar at Wegmans. For those of you that you didn’t believe me when I told you how awesome the grocery store Wegmans is I think this picture is proof. The store also has comparably sized bakery, seafood, etc sections. I wish, wish, wish I had one in Las Cruces.
Here’s a Canadian goose. I love these birds. They do not love me but that’s ok. I think that my kids will think it’s cool so hence the picture.
Yeah, wonderful baptism day! It was well worth the trip layovers and all.
Ohh and yeah Oliver loves me now.
Disclaimer: This post has no photos so if you are looking for many photos like yesterday you won’t find any. I went to take my first photo of the day only to realize that I’d left the memory card for the camera at home. So, no photos.
Photos or no it was a good day. We went to a sushi lunch but I ate noodles and vegetable rolls instead of raw fish because I just really don’t want to eat raw fish. We went to visit a pasta factory which was really interesting. We met Grandpa and Grandma for dinner at the Indian restaurant and had some tasty food. I ran errands for Aunt Kate and got things so that we can start taking the wallpaper off of her wall. We spent some time walking around the lake in Webster and it was wonderful because the sun was out and the smell of the water was in the air.
I am having a great time but I think that it’s about time to go home because I’m missing my kiddos and husband. I want an evening snuggling in bed and chatting and such. I want a dinner around the table and dishes to clean up together after wards. Vacations really are wonderful and contribute to a good life but one of the wonderful parts about them is the going home after they are over. :0)
Warning: This post is really photo heavy so if you’re not up for that then just stop now…
Happy Easter! We are all adults here so the bunny didn’t visit us today. We watched some of conference and made brunch in the morning. Dad did a lot of the cooking.
Dad said that I had to title this photo “Dad’s perfect potatoes” and so I deem it thus.
We went to visit some wonderful old friends the Dahnekes who I didn’t remember to take a picture of and then went to walk through the sacred grove and Jospeh Smith farm. I have to say that I got a little photo happy but everything was so beautiful that you’ll just have to deal with it.
Joseph Smith’s original family cabin stood here and looked very much like this.
These were all taken in the sacred grove. As you can see we maybe weren’t so reverent as we should have been all the time but it’s hard when my sister is such a hoot. Anyhow, it’s a wonderfully peaceful place to be.
This is the Joseph Smith frame home as viewed from the back side.
Temple as seen from the grove. It’s beautiful even when there aren’t any leaves o the tress.
Victoria more pictures of flowers because I knew that you’d love them.
Aunt Kate in front of her new apartment. She moved in last week ad it’s a duplex which means a house which is split in half. She loves it and so do I.
This is Oliver Kate’s cat. He was not my friend at first but now he’s laying by me purring and having his belly rubbed. I think that since this cat is like Aunt Kate’s child I’d better be sure and make friends with him. :0)
It’s amazing the things I think and do when I have nothing in particular to think about or do. No dishes to do, no diapes to change, no clothes to wash, you get the picture. I miss the kids though and I miss the diapers and I miss my hubby and I might even miss the dishes tomorrow though I’m not quite there yet.
We went and spent the morning and part of the afternoon with Aunt Carissa and Uncle Dave. Grandpa took Dave a big new power tool and he was very excited. Aunt Carissa showed me all around her new house that you see behind them in the first picture. It looks wonderful and they’ve already done a lot of work on it. We spent time looking all around the Syracuse farmers market which is huge and I am wish wish wishing we had in Las Cruces or even El Paso. They had free range meats, milk and cheese products and eggs there as well as artisinal breads, homemade pasta of various flavors and lots of other vendors. There was even a fresh flower section with easter baskets full of bulb flowers. I know that every one of you reading this would love a market like that!
Spring is coming and I thourghouly enjoyed the drive to Liverpool this morning because we saw daffodils all along the way and there are green bits starting to push through the dead dull spots in the woods and the trees in in bud. It’s like this delicious warm weather was reserved just for me as I can’t imagine asking for better. We saw a huge line at the local hotdog stand and another at the Palmyra icecream parlour as everyone seems to want to embrace the fleeting summer like conditions. There’s something about the warm weather when surrounded by forests and lawns that makes it feel more decedant than it ever seems to in the desert. Maybe because my mind knows that it’s an anomoly for this place or maybe because the people act like they’ve been given a surprise holiday but whatever the reason I’m grateful for it. It’s been a wonderful day. We even got to listen to a bit of conference this evening!
Here’s photos number one. My Dad said “what, are you taking pictures on accident.” Hahahaha, my desert dwelling friends realize that this house has GRASS all around it and the more discerning might notice the fabulous field stone sides as well.
Hey kiddos and Bo Bo and anyone else. I made it safe and sound and took pictures for you but can’t figure out how to upload them on Grandmas computer. I’ll send you some on Sunday night when I am at Aunt Kates though. After a convoluted plane trip which was amazingly relaxing because I had noone to worry about besides myself I arrived in Rochester. This was foruitious because it was dinner time and I was hungry so we had fish on Good Friday which I thought was a really appropriate thing to do. It’s green and beautiful here and I talked with my old friend Pam for a few minutes and I’m always amazed how old friends can stay good friends even if you don’t see them for years at a time. I love that! I’m babbling and need to get to bed because I woke up at 4:45 this morning but since this is vacation and I’m almost done with the book I brought with me I think that I’ll just have to finish that instead and go to bed later. :0)
Grandpa! He’s shaved the head and face in preparation for his cruise and as a nod to Spring.
In 2009 we bought a house and so qualified for the new home buyers tax incentive. We were all happy to send off our return at the beginning of February. Mid March I hadn’t heard anything but read a cryptic message on the internet about our filing status and so called the IRS. Turns out our refund was high enough that it got red flagged and we had to wait to get a letter in the mail telling us what to do next. So we get the letter last week and it’s basically a generic form saying we may or may not contact you and you can NOT contact us for 45 days from the date they mailed us said letter to check on the status of your return. Ok, so they need more time… Then yesterday we got a letter with an actual request for information. They seem to want to verify that we live in the house that we bought. I guess that isn’t unreasonable so today I mail them a packet of information verifying that we do indeed live in our home and aren’t renting it or anything. Sooo, maybe in another 6 or 8 weeks we’ll actually get our tax refund. Four months isn’t an unreasonable amount of time to wait is it?
Ok, the cat’s out of the bag which is fine and good because a visit is a visit whether it’s a surprise or not! I am going to visit NY over Easter weekend and so we did Easter here a bit early. The older kids already know that the bunny is Mom and so it’s all for Aidan anyhow and he’s much to young to know how to read a calendar. Since it’s General Conference weekend they won’t even be missing church so we’re square in my book. Easter came early and so you get to have our pictures to wet your whistle for your own celebrations.
Victoria is a little artiste no matter what the given working materials are. She took to eggs just as she does to any other medium. Her favorite egg was a stripy one. Thanks Grandma Sue for the egg dye kit it saved us from using all the food coloring in the cupboard!
Aidan was very interested in the process of putting eggs into cups of colored water. He wanted to dip the same one over and over into different colors. He had one that was his favorite and he took it to show his Dad but dropped it several times on the way so it was a bit of a crackled looked mess but he was proud none the less.
Chullain was home this evening but no longer thinks that egg dying is cool (his friends were also here and they each dyed one egg but alas Chullain is currently cooler than that.)
Chullain and Victoria hid the eggs this year which was fun for them. They helped hunt as well but as you can imagine this hunt was mostly about Aidan so he came away with his basket full to the brim. We hunted after nap because if you’re going to do a non-traditional holiday you might as well do it up. Happy Easter to all.
I have been not posting on this blog. I have been trying to get grass to grow in my back yard, unsuccessfully I might add. I have been teaching two friends to bake bread, a fun diversion for sure. I have been cleaning the garage and moving patio furniture. I have been cleaning the house and trying to keep it that way. I have been in the laundry room fighting the never ending flow of laundry. I have been at the playground because it’s really sunny and nice here now. I have been on walks with my new friend Chanda because I want to loose weight though I have very little will power when it comes to this. I have been sitting in the desert while my children play instruments. I have been at the library because my children can’t get enough new reading material. I have been curled up in bed with a new book that I love. I have been on the couch watching Toy Story with a whole new generation eager to devour it. I have been in front of the computer trip planning so we can budget to actually take the trips. I have been in the kitchen trying muffin recipes all thanks to joy the baker. Anyhow, you see I have been doing things just not this. I’ll try to pull out the camera, do something interesting and tell you all about it sometime soon.
These are my children at their respective breakfast times. I think that these photos give great insight into their temperaments and individual styles of waking up. Chullain is foul, you have to tread carefully until he has eaten. Victoria is drowsy and a bit saucy and needs reminders to eat. Aidan is a joy snuggles me every morning. Now you all also know a little secret… you know that I feed my children nasty, sugar filled, dyed cereal for breakfast. Don’t hold it against me though because Bo just reminded me that I used to cook breakfast and this denotes that I may one day do it again.
Our patio is done. We did not finish it. Our friend Dalin finished it and we’re happy that he did because we are not masons and no longer aspire to be.
Molly and I made Cibatta. I was a happy camper at dinner time yesterday to be sure. I like baking with Molly. We already hatching plans for our next adventure in yeast land. I see cinnamon rolls in the month of April.
If you look very carefully you can see string strung across my friend Heidi’s yard. Victoria did this. She did it because she was “bored” and then I punished her by making her clean it all up. She was very thorough in her mess making as well as her cleaning. Before the cleaning it was almost impossible to walk across their yard without tripping. Ugh, talk about embarrassing behaviors of ones children this was up there on the list. Luckily Heidi is a good friend and I don’t fear harsh judgments ;0)
This is all another case of me taking random pictures and then forgetting that I took them and leaving them on the camera. This is how I roll, how I operate, how I exist in a state of disorganization…
This is also a darn cute picture of Aidan wearing a headband and eating a shoe insert. Hmm, how’s that smell?
Victoria made this. She made it mostly by herself. It’s fabulous! Here’s the recipe: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/12/honey-cranberry-cornmeal-quick-bread/
Victoria is a fashionista. She believes that Aidan ought to follow in her footsteps. Aidan in a fashionista in training. He often wears an outfit that consists of sunglasses, cowboy hat and pink pony purse filled with treasures which he shares with all.
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Chullain is an almost teenager. He is good at telling bad jokes and making up crazy stories. He is good at focusing on his school work and dreaming of better days spent with friends instead of books. He is really good at bothering his sister and playing with his little brother. He’s also very good at avoiding the camera. He is alive and well I assure you.
